Anh said evidence of graft was hard to collect and evaluate as police have to ask the permission of concerned authorities before investigating officials.

But he also admitted that some investigators were “irresponsible.”

Tran Quoc Vuong, head of the Supreme People’s Procurary – Vietnam top prosecutor’s office – agreed with many National Assembly representatives who recently said that corruption hearings too often end in probation terms rather than strict punishment.

Around 37 percent of defendants charged with corruption receive the lenient penalty, the highest ratio among all crimes, according to Vuong.

“We prosecutors have identified many cases in which probation is too gentle a sentence,” Vuong said.

Official figures from the procuracy show that 50-55 percent of all appeals over the past twelve months were requests for stronger sentences in corruption cases in which defendants received probation.

However Truong Hoa Binh, presiding judge at the Supreme People’s Court, said probation sentences were only dealt out when the officials met several conditions, such as returning the money involved in their crime or by “contributing to society” via certain achievements while on duty.

But Binh said he was concerned that some of these sentences may not have been just.

“I don’t exclude the chance that some [of the sentences] were implemented incorrectly.”

Reported by Thanh Phong